Hedge Funds Miss Mark

Hedge funds began 2015 coming off their sixth-straight year of trailing U.S. stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) by significant margins. And for the 10-year period ending 2014, one that included the worst bear market in the post-Depression era, the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index returned just 0.7% per year, underperforming every single major equity and bond asset class.

Unfortunately for hedge fund investors, that streak has continued into a seventh year, as the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index lost 3.6% in 2015, underperforming the S&P 500 Index by 5.0 percentage points.